Tag Archives: photography

I’ve got a friend who has just bought a DSLR and was wanting to know how to use it. I’ve just sent him an email with some basic information based on having done some photography courses over the past year and using my camera a lot. I thought that I might as well include the information here. The information would’ve been useful for me although that’s now a guarantee that it will be useful for you.

Almost three years ago, I bought a new Olympus E-PL2 camera. It was a big step up for me, after years of using various compact cameras.

At the time it was a good camera for me. It gave me many of the advantages of a DSLR in a smaller package. It also gave me a lot of the manual control that other cameras had never given me. Unfortunately I didn’t really understand a lot of the theory behind photography at the time so probably didn’t take the best photos that I could but I did learn a lot. Continue reading New Olympus OM-D E-M1→

Growing up in the seventies and eighties, there was a certain amount of romance to travel by train. In a bygone era, steam trains took people across the nation and across the globe. Well, small parts of it at least. More recently, the rise of the motor car and cheap air travel has significantly reduced the appeal of rail travel.

In New Zealand, the rail network is pretty limited and has declined during my life. Now, the train that used to travel twice daily between Auckland and Wellington is now only thrice weekly. And even that infrequently still is in danger of cancellation. Continue reading Northern Explorer AKL-WLG→

My photo book from Blurb arrived a couple of days ago. I had been pretty excited after ordering it and couldn’t really wait for it to turn up so it was good to finally have the package in my hands.

I had bought the large book (13ʺ x 11ʺ) and it turned out to be larger than I expected. It’s a little hard to picture it before ordering and seeing it in my hands, it was almost too big. Continue reading Photo book arrived→

Wednesday was a trip to Staglands, about 45 minutes from Wellington. It’s out in the middle of nowhere, with a collection of farm animals and bird in a nice setting. Doesn’t really sound like much when I describe it like that but it is a pleasant experience and there’s a lot to see.

Then on Friday it was a trip to Wellington Zoo with my girlfriend and her nephew. The zoo seems to have changed a lot since I was young. Most of the old concrete enclosures are gone and have been replaced by more spacious areas.

I’ve been taking a lot of photos lately. Mostly because it’s summer and the weather is nice out but I’m trying to improve my photography skills. It’s a lot of trial and error at the moment. And if I can master this camera, it will help me avoid spending a fortune on a new fancy camera!